Why Choose a Gamification Approach For Mobile App Development?

What is the ultimate thing that keeps your customer revisiting your app? Have you ever thought about it? The answer is simple- Engagement. Keeping your customers engaged will bring your app to repeated users. Customer engagement is the prime focus of many mobile application development businesses currently. The customer today wants new ways of engagements as the monotonous tone of your mobile application can prove fatal.

About 54% of customers today believe that businesses should transform their engagement tools. In the present day, Companies are looking to be on the same channels and medium their customers are and mobile applications already have provided that advantage, but, there are numerous apps and to build user loyalty towards your application needs some tricks.

Personalization is one such trick with 73% of consumers expecting brands and enterprises to understand their needs and personalize the basis of the products on their specific usage. 

Gamification can target specific user-base and personalize an app experience for their specific needs and even motivate them with virtual rewards and badges.

What is Gamification? 

Applying game-like features to your application for increasing engagement is called a Gamification. Application engagement is considered to be co-creative user experiences(UX),  where consumers interact with an interface, which then further reflects the nature of consumers’ particular interactive app relationships. 

In simple words, app engagement can be seen as a multidimensional psychological state that is a consequence of interacting with an app. Gamification positively enhances the engagement and acceptance behavior of any mobile application for better application engagement among users. 

Gamification integrates various processes like programming and software platforms associated with game mechanics and game thinking to solve problems, create engaging experiences, and engage users towards mobile applications. It brings about a dynamic integration of game mechanics into campaigns, content, community activities, services into the applications.

Gamification is a system in which users build networks, share information, participate, and receive rewards and in turn, are engaged continuously with the system. Gamification allows mobile app developers and users to utilize game techniques for advanced educational materials without making huge investments.

 

Benefits of Gamification in Mobile application development; 4Cs of Engagement:

Consumer Focus:Gamification ensures consumer focus by design of APIs specifically for a personalized touch. Take an example of applications for fitness trackers, they are designed to be consumer specific and provide optimal results according to consumer body type, activities, diet, etc. It also uses the Goal Setting Theory(GTS) methodology to keep customer engagement to its optimal level.

Customized APIs can be developed that can be altered according to user preferences and needs with a game like a schematic. Creating a real-time response is important for designing an application with the gamification approach. 

Then, customers should be able to share achievements, rewards, and experiences over their circles through seamless app capabilities and this is achievable with Gamification. Brands can utilize gamification in mobile applications through, prioritizing the consumer involvement in product launches, product trials and rewarding them for their feedbacks.

Cost Of Consumer Engagement:Cost of consumer engagement can be reduced through Gamification as it automates the whole process by the involvement of consumers through participation. 

According to a report only a 5% increase in customer retention can increase the profits of businesses by 125%. The same report states that increasing a 2% cost on customer engagement is equal to a 10% gain on cost reduction and further it is 6-7 times costly to attract new consumers that retaining the old ones. 

This is where Gamification can help mobile application developers to develop applications that can easily retain customers for brands through effective and continuous engagement. 

It induces a consistency through the various game formats that can keep customers hooked through all the channels of communications. It is necessary to utilize all the channels consistently as 9 out of 10 customers according to the above report would stick to service only if it provides consistent communication through all the channels.

Collaboration:

Gamifying mobile apps can enable users to compete with others on the same application or to complete their own goals. Gamified elements help to trigger collaborative sense amongst the users and thus motivates users to use your app even more. 

Creating such gaming experience within an application to promote a collaborative, cohesive and connected universe of users will instantly make usage of the application more delightful.

The tiresome and tedious affair of rebuilding your application from scratch to improve the application engagement can be ditched through the weapon of gamification. The participation factor of users brings about new aspects of application improvements that can be done through updates and newer versions of the applications.

Communication:

The communication part is quite important for the businesses and traffic generation point of view. Mobile application presents a unique channel of communication and it has its gains and losses. But, making this channel more immersive and cohesive can bring about great results for any business entity. So, Gamification applied to the application can bring to the communication criterion of this channel.

The use of the Gamification method can induce the principles of act marketing that target physical behavior, lifestyles, and interactions. It also engulfs relate marketing which can create experiences by taking into account individual desires to be part of a social context (boosting self-esteem and being part of a brand community), connecting consumers with social and cultural causes by correlating with reference groups. 

Brands can hire mobile app developers and utilize such attributes that can integrate Gamification attributes into APIs, Wherein, consumers interact with others and form a brand community to make the Brand a social institution. 

Concluding Lines:

It is one of the many marketing strategies that are integrated into mobile apps to attract customers whose needs may vary widely and is drawing much attention. Gamification is simply based on the fact that people have an instinct to have fun and interesting activities. It is considered a theory of fun, whereby people are more willing to do things they find entertaining and interesting than those that are not cool. It is the theory or methodology that makes any mobile application a fun ride to be on.